“People say it’s just the council being lazy and just giving up, but that’s not the case: we need to look at this very carefully.” [East Devon councillor Ian Barlow]
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Two months ago, the town and district councils promised that “signposts will be installed to grassy areas in the Sid Valley” to indicate where they are trying to “help wildlife and nature flourish”. This is a matter of informing the public of what the councils are trying to do, because “in recent years, concerns over how grassy areas are maintained have been raised by some residents”.
However, at exactly the same time this announcement was made, a Sidmouth resident asked why the council cut grass at Knowle Gardens, saying that “the wildflower meadows had been destroyed… at the most critical time.”
In other words, there seems to be a problem with communication and with management plans – and this has been happening in other areas across the Sid Valley.
For example, last week it was being suggested that the Management Plan for Sidmouth Cemetery still isn’t working, following a drop in insect numbers even more dramatic than elsewhere in the town.
And this time last year, rewilding complaints in East Devon prompted a council re-think – as children’s play areas and grass verges become overgrown.
As the local democracy reporter said: “letting the grass grow is good for the environment, and encourages birds and insects. it also help council budgets, cutting cash spent on maintenance.”
But as a councillor also said: “people say it’s just the council being lazy and just giving up, but that’s not the case: we need to look at this very carefully.”
And we do indeed to look at this very carefully – because weed-choked pavements anger residents, as ‘rewilding’ divides UK towns and cities and, as reported yesterday, some feel their council’s woke rewilding scheme is a nightmare, with overgrown grass bringing rats and dog poo.
Ultimately, it does seem to be about engaging properly with the public – but also about the right sort of management.
A very good example of that is how last year’s wildflowers on Sidmouth’s Bowd looked ‘blooming marvellous’, because the council worked very closely with the Sid Valley Biodiversity Group – “by promoting the Life on the Verge, scheme where the management of roadside verges was changed to allow wild flowers to flourish, and by selecting The Bowd verges because there was plenty of room for nature while the very important road safety sight lines could be maintained”.
Finally, it is clear that high grass does not equate to high biodiversity; but it is also clear that properly managed grass does.
The initial analysis of nearly 200 butterfly counts from around the valley by the biodiversity group has shown that open spaces such as the SVA Knapp (with long grass) has a massively larger population of insects – but this requires good management and good communication.
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